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DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING IN THE PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS EDUCATION
G. R. Akramova
This article discusses the issues of developing students' critical thinking in the process of continuous education. Scientists' views on students' critical thinking are presented.
Key words: students, information environment, critical thinking development, continuous education system.
Nowadays the continuous education system of the Republic of Uzbekistan faces a problem - how to prepare the younger generation for independent decision-making and responsible actions, for professional activity in a highly developed information environment, and for efficient use of their capabilities [1]. One of the priorities of the educational process is the development of critical thinking of students in secondary schools. The prerequisites for this include such trends of modern society as the ever-expanding information space, a sharp increase in the role of information processes, and the volume of information coming from the outside.
All this is reflected in the social sphere, and, above all, in education. This is why we are talking today about changing the educational paradigm, about reorienting the education system with traditional knowledge-based pedagogy towards pedagogy of innovations, and developing pedagogy, the purpose of which is the development of the entire set of personal qualities: knowledge, skills, methods, mental activities, new competencies, self-governing mechanisms, emotional and moral and activity, and practical means for receiving high quality education. According to E.S. Polat, "not merely the assimilation of knowledge, but the ability to creatively apply knowledge, and to develop independent critical thinking - that's a problem, the implementation of which requires a fundamentally different attitude to training technology and theory" [2]. According to M.V. Klarin, critical thinking is rational, reflective thinking aimed at solving an issue, and what to believe and what actions to undertake. With this understanding, critical thinking includes both the ability (skills), and predisposition (settings) [3]. One of the researchers of critical thinking, D. Halpern, believes that "critical thinking is the use of cognitive techniques or strategies that increase the probability of obtaining the desired result" [4]. This definition characterizes thinking as something which may be controlled, justified and has a purpose - the type of thinking which is used to solve tasks, make conclusions, assess probabilities, and make decisions. This is a student who can think and uses skills which are justified and efficient for the specific situation and the type of issue solved
Today, education has the task of educating a critically thinking student who can think, analyze, and is able to see the problem and find efficient ways to solve it. According to the concept of R. Ennis, a critically thinking person must: (1) ensure that his/her views and decisions are clearly justified, and for this it is necessary to strive to find new hypotheses, alternative explanations, sources, and conclusions;
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to be well informed; to consider points of view different from one’s own point of view; to expand one’s horizons and seek diversified awareness; (2) to be able to clearly imagine one’s own position and the position of others; to clearly and precisely understand the meaning of words spoken or written, taking into account the particularities of the situation; focus on the issue or the conclusion, to strive to adhere to the basic theme; search and offer arguments (justification); taking into account the whole situation; be aware of one’s own beliefs; (3) respect the opinion and dignity of the interlocutor, to be able to listen to and hear others; avoid criticism, taking into account the feelings of the interlocutor, to be sensitive and seek to understand others' feelings, their level of knowledge and depth of judgment; to be considerate of the other person’s state [5, p. 171].
The development of critical thinking in modern conditions aims to: (a) teach students to allocate causal relationships; (b) consider new ideas and knowledge in the context of existing ones; (c) reject unnecessary or incorrect information;
(d) understand how various pieces of information are related to each other;
(e) allocate errors in reasoning; (f) identify false stereotypes that lead to wrong conclusions; (g) be able to distinguish facts, which you can always check, from suggestions and personal opinion, etc. Thus, critical thinking of a student is related to the student's curiosity, good awareness, cause of trust, open-mindedness, flexibility, fairness in evaluation, honesty in facing personal biases, prudency in judgment, a desire to revise and clarify issues and complex problems, due care in search for the right information, intelligence in the selection of criteria, and consistency in the search for results.
Thus, the formation of students’ critical thinking is determined to a greater extent by the requirements of time, and is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, the key components of which are: the settings and readiness of critical thinking, ownership of a set of intellectual skills and the presence of certain experience, both scientific and life experience, as a "platform" for application of these skills. If we talk about development of students’ critical thinking, we should talk about development of their targets and purposes to improve the quality of thinking, improve certain cognitive skills, and the ability to use these skills both in training activities and in everyday life.
Bibliography
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Тошкент, 2005. - № 2. - С. 26-29.
2. Полат Е. С. Проблемы образования в канун XXI века // Интернет-журнал «Эйдос»,
1998.
3. Инновационные модели обучения в зарубежных педагогических поисках. - М., 1994.
4. Халперн Д. Психология критического мышления. - М., 2000.
5. Fisher A. Critical Thinking. An Introduction. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
6. Заир-Бек С. И., Муштавинская И. В. Развитие критического мышления на уроке:
пособие для учителя. - М.: Просвещение, 2004.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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